Torrance is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 137,933 people and 29 constituent neighborhoods, Torrance is the 31st largest community in California.

Torrance is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 85.84% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Torrance is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Torrance who work in office and administrative support jobs (17.07%), management occupations (13.41%), and sales jobs (12.95%).

Also of interest is that Torrance has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One thing noticeable about Torrance, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That's because Torrance is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Torrance a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Torrance is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates," which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Torrance are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

Torrance Information and Demographics

The population of Torrance is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 14.96% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 36.42% of adults in Torrance have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Torrance in 2000 was $28,144, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $112,576 for a family of four.

Torrance is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Torrance home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Torrance is White, followed by Asian. Torrance also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.88% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Torrance include German, English, Irish, and Italian.

In addition, Torrance has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (27.60%).

The languages spoken by people in Torrance are also diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in Torrance is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.